Catalunya GP: Slow engine leaves Smith sixth

Bradley Smith finished in a disappointing sixth place in today’s Catalunya 125 GP as a lack of engine speed ruined his bid for a second podium in three races.
The British teenager had brilliantly qualified on the front row of the grid and looked set to mount a serious battle for the rostrum when he held fourth place on lap one.
He quickly slipped to sixth place though as his Repsol Honda engine was easily outpaced on the long start/finish straight.
He held sixth place for the next five laps before slipping to seventh on lap six, and a lap later he found himself at the back of the leading bunch in eighth.
He briefly fought back to pass eventual race winner Tomoyoshi Koyama on lap nine but started to lose touch with the front group on lap 11.
He couldn’t mount a counter attack from that point on with the engine on his Honda down on speed compared to the swarm of Aprilia and KTM machines in front.
“The engine wasn’t up to speed where in other races it has been. I was being destroyed everywhere and that’s really demoralising.
”It was demoralising because the others were just disappearing. It wasn’t even difficult for them to pass on the straight and that was a shame.”
Smith told MCN, as he failed to reach the dizzy heights of his third place in last month’s French GP in Le Mans.
Sixth was still his second best world championship result and he added: “We go to some tighter tracks now like my home race in Donington where the speed difference shouldn’t be that bad.
”We’ll work to see if we can make it better and all I can do is the take positives out of today. I got another front row and sixth is my best result after the Le Mans podium.”